EVENTS

More TV tonight!

Maybe for you, maybe not for me. PBS is supposed to show the documentary The Revisionaries tonight, a show about the Texas Board of Education and it’s horrendous abuse of the educational system, but looking at my local television schedule, I can’t see it. We’re in a conservative rural area with a rather chickenshit public broadcasting channel that often either disappears these ‘controversial’ shows or schedules them at bizarre early morning hours. I’ve been cursed over this show; the makers were going to send me a screener, and assured me multiple times that it would be mailed to me, and it somehow never arrived.

At least I can see the trailer. Maybe my blood pressure can be thankful that I may not get to see the rest of it.

Grrrr. Don McLeroy. The personification of the banality and jovial stupidity of evil.

Good news! Errm, or is it bad news? It is being shown here in the Morris area tonight. The trick is that the stations aren’t advertising it as “revisionaries”, and they aren’t mentioning creation/evolution. Look for “Independent Lens”, a documentary about textbooks.

Morris people: it’s on channel 10 at 9pm tonight. The makers did write to me, though, and say that the PBS version had a half hour cut from it to make it fit the time slot — we’ll see what gets on.

I saw the film in pre-release. I am glad that it is now getting greater attention.

It is discouraging to see a man whose profession is supposed to be science based, develop such strong delusions. Dr. McLeroy comes across as a personable likable guy, certainly as much as a certain squid lover, but his ideas are wrong and have no place in our schools. This makes our fight that much more difficult. At least the fellow who took the time to run against him shows that not all Texans are crazy.

The Oxford comma is fine, but there ought not to be an apostrophe in the possessive “its”.

Sorry to continue the derail, but, Mr Pedant, ought there also be an apostrophe in the possessives “his”, and “hers”, and “ours”? Just wanted to share a recent tip I learned about which is “its” and which is “it’s”. Sorry for the interruption, carry on.

It is airing tonight on the secondary PBS channel, which is available through cable or OTA digital but not via satellite. Time to dig out the rabbit ears and the tin foil (I’m going to make a neat little hat for McLeroy).

I’m in the same boat with Pteryxx. I will set my DVR to record it tomorrow night. I will likely watch it when my daughter is sound asleep, lest she pick up more of my more creative vocabulary. I really don’t want to have a talk with her teachers as to why she’s screaming “that asshole is full of bullshit.”

Might as well get a full feel for what passes for education in this state.

I just scheduled my Tivo to record it, here in Morris, off of the main Pioneer Public Television channel, at 9:00pm (Independent Lens). It is also going to be shown on their HD digital channel. It will be show again Wednesday at 3:00 am.

The affiliate’s listings are not super helpful though – it lists “Independent Lens”, and gives a description “The debate over textbooks”, and you never see the word ‘Revisionaries’. The tivo schedule had it, though.

The affiliate’s listings are not super helpful though – it lists “Independent Lens”, and gives a description “The debate over textbooks”, and you never see the word ‘Revisionaries’. The tivo schedule had it, though.

*checks to confirm* That explains what happened with my listings in Texas – I did a search through the DVR function and found nothing, then went to the PBS site and found the Tuesday night airing, then *manually* clicked through the DVR box’s guide to find the actual show for recording. The search function only works on the show title “Independent Lens”. (It does list “Revisionaries” as the episode title though.)

Mea culpa, mea culpa, so sorry, “Mr Pedant”, I misread your original comment. You wrote “there ought not to be an apostrophe in the possessive ‘its'”, but I misread it without the “not” included and so completely misinterpreted your comment. So sorry, so sorry. I’ll be more careful from now on.

Huzzah! Quick, someone set up a live watch party for discus– oh, that only happens with big-advertising big-channel shows like Discovery’s 30 Seconds of Giant Squid, huh. *grumbles about PBS patchwork*

The investigative show IndependentLens has a twitter here: @IndependentLens

Twitter for “The Revisionaries” itself: @TheRevsMovie

They’ve scheduled a Reddit AMA to take place TONIGHT during the broadcast premiere:

We’re planning a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) with The Revisionaries director Scott Thurman and some of the main subjects, including Don McLeroy (former chairman of the board and young earth creationist), Kathy Miller
(president of the Texas Freedom Network), and Ron Wetherington (anthropology professor at SMU and pro-evolution expert who helped develop the standards), during and after the broadcast premiere on PBS tomorrow (between 9 PM EST and 12 AM EST). We will post the link here as soon as it starts.

I’m a producer on the film. We spent four years working on the project and we’re so excited for everyone to get to see it. We’re planning to do a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything – basically a Q&A) (http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/) with the director and some of the main subjects during and after the premiere today (probably between 9 PM EST and 12 AM EST), including Don McLeroy (former chairman of the board and young earth creationist), Kathy Miller (president of the Texas Freedom Network), and Ron Wetherington (anthropology professor at SMU and expert who helped develop the standards). I’m sure that will be interesting! I’m really excited, and can’t wait to see what you guys think.

What impact do you hope the film will have?
I hope people pay more attention to public education and participate in local elections, especially the primaries for Texans.

What led you to make this film?
I was interested in evolution education and later heard about the 2008 Texas Board of Education’s controversial process for revising the science standards. At first I was looking to profile an energetic science teacher like the one I had in the fifth grade, Jerry Keller, but as I gained better access to politicians and people involved with the board of education, I decided to shift focus to the political issue as I recognized the dramatic ingredients for a more interesting and accessible story about the politics of education.

It is discouraging to see a man whose profession is supposed to be science based, develop such strong delusions.

The problem is a doctor or dentist’s profession is only “science based” by proxy. Most of the science was done years or decades ago by actual scientists, then the conclusions were copied into textbooks. So what the medical student does ISN”T science, it’s memorizing revealed wisdom. This, of course, is right in the wheelhouse of religious wackos, which I think explains why so many MDs, DDSs (and engineers, too) are fundamentalists, or harbor other systems of delusion, like worshiping Ayn Rand.

I had been wondering if this important upcoming Independent Lens doc was going to get mentioned here.
PBS’s NOW had done a piece on this group within the past few years. This will likely be more in-depth.

Well, for one thing, this idiot is no longer on the board, but he has been replaced as chairman by a woman who does homeschooling for her kids to save them from paganism being taught in the public schools.

As for the permanent damage the SOB has already done to Texas Ejumakashun, we in College Station apologize profusely. Where are the abortionists when you need one?

And I’m chuckling at the showing at Cynthia Dunbar’s May Day rally… I’m also very very angry that they aren’t made to consult with actual historians with regard to historical issues. Rulings by opinions and ideology. Yeah, now I’m pissed off they vote by fiat.

I don’t agree with these <i.experts; somebody’s gotta stand up to these experts

Bah! *headsplosion*

The second anyone starts a sentence with “I don’t agree with the experts” or “The experts may say…” then I am automatically going to discount everything they go on to say. Because what they’ve just said is “Here’s what everyone who actually knows about the subject thinks, but I disagree based on X, Y and Z uninformed drivel”.